Alexei Koval, who admitted that he conspired with former UBS investment banker Igor Poteroba to make $1.4 million in a four-year insider-trading scheme, was sentenced to 26 months in prison.

Koval, 37, who worked at Northern Trust as a pricing manager before his arrest in March 2010, was sentenced yesterday in Manhattan federal court after pleading guilty in January to conspiracy and securities fraud.

“My actions caused so much destruction, so much pain to many people,” Koval told Judge Paul Crotty. Koval is being held in a federal lockup in Brooklyn.

Poteroba, 37, who was an investment banker in the health-care group at UBS Securities LLC before his arrest, was sentenced to 22 months behind bars in March after pleading guilty to insider trading. He admitted that he tipped friends to potential mergers.